Negative Exposure, A Halloween Story
by Miharu is Harukas Love Child 2
Summary: Fontana, September 1st 1996. Linda just wanted to spend the last day of summer vacation with her brother Mello. If only they hadn't invited Matt. If only they hadn't found that stupid camera. Nobody would have had to die. Inspired by Say Cheese and Die by RL Stine. Happy Halloween y'all. (Complete?) Rated T for mentions of homophobia, incest, gore, child abuse, rape, death
1. Chapter 1

Inspired by _Say Cheese and Die by RL STINE_

A/N: Hi friends. I'm sorry I disappeared under a rock. To make up for it, here's a multi-chapter fic that's already completed! (sorta. kay, there's multiple endings. I haven't written the final final ending yet. T_T). ANYWAYS, thank you to Demonic Mello for messaging me out of hiding.

* * *

Chapter 1

The sun glittered softly through the slit in the blinds, letting a solitary ray illuminate the face and hair of the sleeping boy. Linda loved to watch him peaceful like that; she loved to watch Mello all the time, really. She leaned over him just a little, careful not to block the light and studied his face: the delicate curve of his nose, his high cheek bones, face-framing fringe of gold hair, porcelain skin. Mello was beautiful, possibly the most beautiful person she had ever seen, but she didn't like to watch him sleep for that reason. No, Linda loved to watch him sleep because it was the only time he seemed calm and still. Mello was the kind of boy who let all his emotions show in his face. A sensitive boy, you could always see a plethora of emotions flickering across his eyes. To see him so still felt almost alien to the girl.

And yet, as much as she loved his sleeping face, she really needed to wake him. It was already half-past noon.

Linda moved back just a little bit and adjusted the scrunchie from her side ponytail before pouncing on her step-brother.

"Yeouch! Jesus, Lin! Get off!"

Linda threw her head back and let laughter roll down her frame as she straddled him, "Wake-y wake-y Mello Yellow. C'mon. We're going out."

"Ughh," he groaned and turned to face his bedside calendar. Sunday, September 1st, 1996. A little red notation marked the next day as Labor day; the official last day of summer vacation. He'd promised to do whatever she wanted before they went back to school. After all, it was a big deal, being Linda's last weekend before starting High School. Tuesday was a big day for Mello, too. He'd be an 8th grader, himself. Time was flying by too fast.

"So. What are we doing today?"

He was startled when she suddenly snuggled right up to him over the covers. She poked his nose with her forefinger and whispered, "we're going to explore the old abandoned warehouse on Broad Street."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Two chapters in one day? yay!

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"What's he doing here?"

It was about 1:30 and Linda was getting impatient. If they didn't get going soon they weren't going to have much time to explore before curfew. They should have been half way to Broad Street by now. Instead they were standing in the their garage, watching the boy from two streets down as he maintenanced his Schwinn.

Mello cocked his head, "You don't know what fixing a tire looks like, really?"

Linda rolled her eyes. "Hardee-har-har. I know what he's doing. I meant why's he doing it here?"

She watched the redhead boy as he applied green slime to the hole in his bike tire. Linda Keehl was not a fan of Mail Jeevas, or 'Matt' as they called him. He'd seemed like a nice kid when they'd moved to Fontanta three years prior, but there was something really odd about the boy that rubbed her the wrong way, and she didn't just mean his appearance. Funky wasn't even the word; Matt wore long-sleeved striped shirts even in triple-digit California weather. And he wore a pair of dorky oversize swim goggles. You could never see his eyes through the orange-tint. Linda liked looking people in the eye when talking to them; at least she could read them like that. Matt, on the other hand, was the most aloof person she'd ever met, and he'd gotten waaaay too close to Mello recently. Mello spent so much of his free time with Matt, that she was beginning to feel replaced. Mello wasn't just her step-brother. He was her best friend; things had always been that way. It just wasn't right!

The redhead glanced up at her as he finished patching up his tire, "Sorry, what was that, Merlinda? Thank you, Matt, for fixing my Walkman that Mello broke last week?"

The brunette girl frowned. She hated being called by her full name, but he had a point. She hadn't thanked him yet, and he had done her the favor for free.

"Thank you Matt." She sighed, then softened slightly, "I didn't mean to be rude. Just, Mels and I were going to do something and we want plenty of time before curfew."

At this, Mello grinned, "We're going to look for old Rinty's ghost. You in?"

Matt nodded. "Bitchin'. Give me ten minutes and I'll join you."

"Wait, who said anything about Matt coming? I thought it'd just be you and me todaaaay?" Linda let her voice whine out a little. Anyone but Matt. If it had been anyone but Matt, she wouldn't have fussed. She just wanted one day that she didn't have to share with him. One. Day.

"Dude. Take a chill pill, will ya?" Mello went and stood next to his friend. Next to the goggled pre-teen, he looked super normal in his black Alice in Chains band tee and acid wash jeans. Linda wasn't much into that whole metal head look, but Mello could wear anything, even girls clothes, and make them look cool. At just 12 years old the boy was turning heads left and right and Linda felt like the DUFF next to him. It wasn't so much that Linda was unfashionable in her smock and stretch pants, just that her overall features weren't as striking as her brother's. Sometimes she was jealous that she didn't have Mello's genes, and not only because she wanted to look like him. When they were little and fought, sometimes he would throw out how she wasn't his real sister. That stung more than she liked to admit.

Matt didn't seem bothered by Linda's lack of friendliness. In fact, he seemed intent on sabotaging her alone time with Mello. "Yo, shall we invite Near too? I saw him swinging in his front yard, all bored and shit."

When Mello agreed, Linda felt utterly defeated. She just accepted that the day wasn't going to go according to plan. Well...that was okay. There would be other days. She could have have other moments. They chatted more as they waited for Matt's bike tire to be reading for riding. Mello and Linda decided they'd take their bikes too; it would make up for time wasted.

"Why don't you ask Halle and Wedy if they want to come too?"

Linda stiffened. "They're...not my friends anymore."

She winced when Mello's eyes clouded with negative emotions. She hadn't meant for him to find out about it. He could get a little...violent, when he wanted to. "Are you being bullied?

The girl sputtered, "Wh—aahh n-no! Why would you say that?"

"Because they always hang out with you at school. I thought it was strange that you weren't going to the mall with them lately. Or that neither of them had slept over. If something's going on, you need to say something, Lin. I've got your back."

"I don't need to hang with hoochies like that," she shook her head, disliking the turn of the conversation.

Matt didn't even bother to look in her direction as he stated matter-of-factly, "They've been absorbed into Misa's clique haven't they?"

"Who's Misa?" Mello queried.

"You wouldn't know her Mel," Matt continued to comment, "you're too straight-laced. Nerd."

"Who are you calling a nerd?" he countered, punching the redhead in the shoulder, "You're the damn biggest nerd I've ever seen. Get off your stupid gameboy once in a while."

"Yeah well. She a tweaker from the high school. Nasty little anorexic-looking skank-ass hoe. Runs with some of my brother's crowd. Been around my house before."

"How has B been anyhow?" Mello asked cautiously.

Matt's older brother was nearly a taboo subject. They hadn't seen him often but his reputation was infamous. In and out of juvie four times, kicked out of 7 different reform schools, known drug dealer, and suspected arsonist: it was the general consensus that Beyond was dangerous. Matt wasn't for defending his brother either. Mello had told Linda in private that Beyond had done something really bad to Matt when he was little. He wouldn't tell her what, but she knew it had to do something with why he always kept his skin covered in long sleeves. When she tried to imagine what it could be, she felt guilty about her jealousy—because that's what it was. She was just jealous of his closeness with Mello. Growing up meant growing apart, apparently. She didn't like it. Not one bit.

"He's home." Matt frowned, answering Mello's question. "So naturally, that's the last place I wanna hang right now."

At that, Linda felt terrible. She promised herself she wasn't going to make any more snarky remarks to Mello's friend—at least until Beyond went back to wherever it was he lived most of the time.

"Do you want to stay over at our place?" She offered before really thinking it through, "I'm sure our parents won't mind."

"Yeah? Sweet. Thanks guys."

Mello squeezed her shoulder in gratitude and they they took off on their bikes, in search of adventure.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: kay so it looks like i'll be publishing the whole thing in one go.

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It seemed like hours by the time the four of them—they'd picked up Near along the way—made it Broad Street and the old abandoned warehouse. The story behind the Warehouse was that it was an old shoe factory. That was only the front, however. It had been shut down for 20 years. Supposedly it happened after one of the workers, Rinty Hinojosa, got his hand stuck in one of the machines and was dragged into it until it lacerated his upper extremities. Ever since then, Rinty's ghost haunted the factory, cursing it to never be a successful business. Another story was that the factory owner got haunted by the ghost and was driven insane. He boarded himself up in the basement and died there.

Allegedly.

The inside of the Warehouse was a dump. It was covered in cobwebs and dust. Paint was peeling from every corner and it looked like scalpers had come and stripped bits of materials here and there. Broken machines were at work stations. Near looked around and found a light switch but it didn't work. No one had paid the electricity in many years.

"Hey let's go down here, guys!"

Matt had found a door marked 'Employees Only' and opened it. It lead to a basement.

"What the hell is this stuff?" He asked as he reached the bottom.

The other's followed and looked around. The basement was filled with lots of junk. Spare parts and odds and ends. Here and there though were some really weird looking bits of machinery and blueprints for bizarre mechanisms and inventions. Near picked up a particularly space-age looking device and examined it. It was small and weighed only about two pounds.

"I think this is a camera." He stated after a moment. He turned it over and found an on-switch.

Linda poked him once he'd got it working. "Hey, take my picture with the space age camera."

"Kay. Go stand on the stairs. The lighting's better there."

Linda rolled her eyes but did as instructed, "Get my good side, Near."

Near lifted the camera to his eyes and pressed the button. The sound of the shutter was unlike anything they'd ever heard before. It sounded The flash was almost blinding. It was an instant camera and the film deposited out of the front of the camera. Linda waited a moment for it to develop before inquiring after it.

"So? How do I look?"

Near didn't answer. Instead he just looked wide-eyed at the snapshot. Mello leaned over Near's shoulder and snapped it out of the boy's fingertips. His eyes were equally bug-eyed the moment he saw it.

"What is this?" Mello held it close to his eyes for inspection. "Is this some kind of trick camera?"

"Okay, what's wrong?" It was Linda's turn to see the photo. Was there something in her teeth? What were they making the fuss about?!

Mello handed her the picture. It was the same dingy interior of the warehouse that she expected. The same creaky staircase. With Linda in the middle of it. Only, it wasn't Linda smiling like she'd posed. Rather, her face was contorted in shock and she'd had her hands lifted to her face. They were covered in blood!

"No way!" She looked up at the others, dumbfounded. She handed the picture to Matt who was the last to see it.

They all agreed that it had to be some kind of trick camera. It was just too weird. But how could it manipulate her features like that? If it had just like projected a ghost or something into the phot, that would have been something they could explain. But the blood on her hands? The change in her facial expression? Too weird. Too realistic.

The camera was creepy.

"Guys, why don't we leave?" Linda suggested. The picture was making her feel uneasy. She felt a deep knot in the base of her stomach and a dull ache was spreading across her abdomen. She could feel a headache coming on and the Warehouse wasn't quite as interesting as she'd imagined it to be.

"Yeah. Let's roll."

Linda was the last one to ascend the stairs. When she had touched the second step with her foot, it gave out and she slipped backwards, landing right on her butt.

"Lin, are you alright?" Mello rushed down to her.

She groaned as he extended his hand to her and helped her up. She dusted her butt, but when she brought her hands to the front of her Mello grabbed them.

Linda couldn't believe her eyes.

Exactly as in the photograph, her hands were covered in blood.


	4. The End

A/N: This is the first end

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Linda woke up still feeling mortified. What a way to have her first menstruation cycle! To top off all the confusion, they'd all seen it and she couldn't take it back. She'd spent part of the night crying in embarrassment. The boys had been nice enough to not really say anything about it, but she knew they were making fun of her in their minds. She'd been so shocked at first though, when she saw her hands covered in blood. She sent all the boys upstairs and examined herself and immediately understood what was happening. All her friends had gone through it already. At fourteen she was bit late to start, but it was finally her time to hit puberty. It was so humiliating though. She had to line her panties with a trash bag on the way home and Near had lent her his button-down shirt to tie around her waist until she could change and wash her clothes. She probably would never be able to outlive the shame.

Those were the thoughts she had as she awoke the next morning. Those thoughts and how insane it was that the camera had predicted such a thing. They had talked among themselves and were split on the theories. Either the camera could predict the future or it forced a negative reality on the subject of the photo. They'd tested it again inside the warehouse by taking a picture of a table. After waiting around for a few minutes, the table collapsed, matching the broken down version of it that the was on the picture. Whatever the reality of the camera was, it was dangerous. They'd decided to leave it there.

Yet in the kitchen, Linda saw the camera. She went off towards Mello's room to ask which of them had taken the stupid thing from the warehouse. Mello's door was cracked slightly open so she pushed it a bit more and didn't bother knocking. She usually never bothered anyway. What she saw, froze her at the doorway.

Mello. Her beautiful, precious Mello. Face peaceful and angelic as it always was while he slept. That wasn't the problem. The problem was his hand. And the other body in the bed.

When she'd left them last night, they'd put out a sleeping bag on the floor for Matt. That had been abandoned on the floor. Matt was on the bed, his body practically glued to her brothers, goggles discarded, shirtless, pants rolled down, and his hands on his...his...

She forced herself to look at it. To look at him. To look at it. To look.

Matt was bent over, his hand clutching Mello's fingers around his engorged dick. It wasn't the first time she'd seen one; she'd used to take baths with Mello after all. But this looked so different. It was swollen and pink. Linda couldn't look away. Short wiry hairs poked all around the base where the boy's balls poked out of his zipper. He hadn't even seen her. His eyes were shut tight and his mouth was open. She watched, frozen, as his rolled Mello's fingers over and over, up and down, across the swollen flesh. Matt seemed so different like that, so concentrated with his body shaking. She couldn't tell if he was in pain or not. Suddenly the redhead's eyes scrunched up and white liquid flowed out of the tip, coating his hand and Mello's fingers. He lifted Mello's hand and lifted it to his cheek, not caring that he smeared some of the white stuff across his face. He looked so genuinely happy, it made Linda's stomach jolt. It was at that moment he opened his eyes and looked right at her. Without the goggles to mask his eyes, she could see how piercingly green they were. She could also see that his eyelashes were the same deep auburn of his pubic hair. None of that mattered though. What mattered was how his brief look of pure delight quickly changed into terrified tears.

She walked out of the room. Linda couldn't even say anything. She just walked through the hall, clutching that stupid camera like it was her lifeline. Not really sure where she was going, she bumped her leg into the coffee table and nearly fell over.

"Fuck!" she hopped to the couch, having somehow ended up in the living room. There would be a bruise. She didn't care. Her hands were shaking. The remote was next to her so she grabbed it and pressed the power button. The Dragon Tales theme song played and she quickly flicked the channel off of PBS. Dragon Ball Z in Spanish was playing on the Korean channel for some reason. She settled for Martha Stewart making some white-washed version of Italian food and calling it 'authentic'.

"Linda?"

She didn't even register that he hadn't called her by her full name, which he usually did. She just looked over at him. He'd put his shirt back on. His pants were on properly too. The goggles were still gone.

He opened his mouth and closed it again, walking away and returning with some napkins from the kitchen. He handed one to her.

She hadn't even noticed that she was crying.

"Linda?" He said again, deep fear penetrating into her. Suddenly, she realized that she hated him. Linda really truly hated Mail Jeevas. She only blew her nose and concentrated on that revelation, ticking off the reasons why he made her skin crawl. He was butting in between her and Mello. That was an extreme offense. He was a bad influence. That wasn't conjecture; Matt was a bad student, and sometimes smoked weed. He was also the class clown. Mello didn't need that kind of influence. And then there was what she'd just seen. Linda wasn't completely dense about boys and their sexual needs, but she knew what Matt had done, was deeply wrong, made all the more suspicious by the fact that Mello hadn't been awake to even know of his own participation in it. Non consensual sexual contact was at the least sexual harassment. Was what Matt did...any different from rape? Did it even work like that? They were both boys after all. Did it even count between boys? Would Matt go to jail for something like that? And then there was the other train of thoughts that she couldn't make go away: Matt was a faggot? Had he done anything worse to Mello? Oh God, could he turn Mello gay too?

"Why?" she suddenly asked him.

He had been talking  
the entire time. Rambling. Begging even, for her not to tell Mello. She hadn't paid much attention.

"Why what, exactly?" he countered.

What, exactly? Why had he done that to Mello? She wanted to scream and she wanted to punch him. Some deep part of her also wanted to ask if Matt was in love with her brother. Suddenly she thought along that route and ran with it. She didn't need to ask. She knew. Matt had to be in love with Mello. She wanted to ask if he had confessed to Mello. She had so many questions to ask, a great majority of them empathetic and understanding. Most of all she wanted to know if he was terrified about being gay.

She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. She really did.

Instead, she looked at him in the eye and her tongue dripped venom, "Why are you such a sick freak?"

She didn't expect him to cry, but that was exactly what he did. Linda surprised herself by having zero compassion for his tears. She listened to his story. It was worse than what she imagined, and a lot of it stemmed from Matt's older brother. Part of his mind was stuck in a toddler's mindset, the age at which the sexual abuse began. Beyond had started slowly, touching him and kissing him. It progressed to sex when Matt was only 7 years old. Linda listened, absolutely horrified at the redhead's story. Matt had tried to talk once. Tried to tell his mom what his brother was doing to him. The next night their mom worked the graveyard shift, Beyond dumped water on him and locked him in a cold storage for two hours. Somehow he only just survived it. The reason Matt always wore long sleeves was because Beyond had forced him to promise to never show his body to other people.

He was truly terrified of his brother.

She had so many questions. Again, none of them surfaced. Matt wasn't her concern.

"What does that have to do with Mello?"

Matt nodded, like he'd been waiting for her to ask about that. Then he said it clear for her, "Mello helps me forget all the shit my brother has done to me. He looks at me just for me and doesn't expect anything from me. I love Mello. I love him so much."

"Then why are you treating him the same way your brother treats you?" She replied, not belying the ice in her tone.

"No! No. I would never hurt Mello. I would never do those things to him!" Matt's eyes flashed in desperation. "I just wanted to imagine for a minute that someone really actually loved me. I know it will never be that way. Mello isn't messed up in the head like me. He's normal. He'll probably have a girlfriend soon and I'll spend all my time torn between hating her and wanting him to be happy. I just wanted one minute of feeling loved, Linda. Please don't tell him. Please don't take this away from me."

Linda put her hand out to touch Matt. She stopped just short of his shirt and retracted her hand.

"Yeah. Mello never has to know about this," she said finally.

Matt sighed like she'd thrown him a lifeline. As he got up to get more napkins from the kitchen, Linda called out to him one last time.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"The one who went back into the warehouse was you, wasn't it? You went back for the camera, right?"

"Yeah." He admitted.

Linda hid all her emotions behind a weak smile, "why?"

Matt shifted from one foot to another and replied with full honesty, "If that's really a camera that makes bad things happen. I wanted to take a picture of Beyond."

Linda nodded.

"Hey Linda?"

"Nnn?"

"Thanks for being such a good friend."

She waited until he turned around before she answered, "Sure thing, Matt. Any time."

As she said it, she raised the camera right at him and smiled at the familiar click of the shutter as she took Matt's picture.


	5. Bonus Ending

A/N: Bonus Ending #1:

* * *

Linda didn't tell Mello. She hid the photograph in her panties drawer, where no one would ever look. It was Thursday—the fifth day since the camera had been introduced into their lives. Linda clutched Mello's hand tightly as they stood around the burial plot where people were stepping forward and throwing bits of dirt on the coffin. The preacher was saying things about the afterlife and peace and the tragedy of someone dying so young.

None of it mattered.

What mattered was how utterly shattered Mello was. And that it was her fault.

Every time Linda closed her eyes she saw the image of the picture she'd taken of Matt just four days prior. It made her absolutely sick to her stomach. Matt's body twisted like a pretzel. Matt's eyes staring at her, open and void of life. Matt's torso crushed and spilling organs. And the blood. All the blood.

And it happened like that. That very day. He was riding his bike back home from the Keehl house on Monday when a big rig swerved very hard on the corner. Witnesses said that the support cables snapped, letting the steel beams roll off into the street. The coroner's office said he died the instant the beam struck his head, so he didn't even feel when it compressed his chest flat against the floor.

"He was only eleven years old! That poor family. It should have been the other one. That crazy Beyond."

"I heard Matt was a trouble maker too. Can't trust none of them, those Jeevases."

"Baptized or not, I still say he's not earned himself a place in Heaven. Why does the priest lie to the poor mother like that?"

Mello fumed at every slight, every insult to Matt's character. He couldn't believe how disrespectful and tactless these people were!

When it was their turn to throw flowers on the grave, Linda squeezed his hand to give him strength.

"Goodbye Matt. I'm so sorry. You are the best friend that I've ever had."

Those words, more than anything she'd seen or heard in the past week, burned a hole in Linda's heart. She dropped Mello's hand. He turned to see his step-sister run, presumably unable to handle being there any longer. After a few moments, he followed her, also unable to handle the stuffy hypocritical adults who kept bath mouthing his friend. None of them knew Matt! They just wanted shit to gossip about.

When Mello arrived home, he found Linda in her room, on her bed.

"You okay, Lin? I'm sorry I've been so busy feeling sorry for myself that I haven't even stopped to ask you how you're being affected by Matt's death. I..."

He stopped when he saw the look on her face. She'd stopped crying.

"Linda?"

"You're so stupid." She said simply. "So dense, Mello."

When he gave her a quizzical look, she took that as a hint to go on, "I did it to protect you. He would have done something to hurt you Mello. He wasn't right in the head."

Mello cautiously stepped towards the bed, "What did you do, Lin?"

"I can't believe it!" she shouted. "Matt is the best friend you've ever had? You actually said that in front of all those people? That's fucking bullshit! I'm your best friend. I've always been your best friend, ever since you were two years old and our parents got married! And you're so stupid, Mello. You couldn't even tell that he was in love with you. God!"

Mello stopped her right there, "Wait, what? Linda you're not making any sense."

"I did it for you, Mello Yellow! I did it for us! So we could go back to normal. He would have hurt you. I walked in on him rubbing his you-know-what against you. Who knows what else he would have tried?!"

"Linda! What the hell did you do?"

She threw the instantly developed photo at him. Mello caught it and looked. He immediately covered his mouth and dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face. A second glance had him retching on the floor. Linda looked on from the bed and maintained her cool expression, not bothering to get up and hold his hair back like she normally would have done. She blocked out the sounds and the smell of the bile. Such things were trivial. When Mello regained enough composure to look at her, his face was void of feeling. He stood up and walked over to her, detached from the normal Mello she knew and loved. This Mello wasn't her Mello. Linda hugged her knees to herself; this was sooo not going according to plan. She was losing him. That was not acceptable!

"What did you do?" he asked again, not really needing to hear the answer.

Linda lept over the edge of the bed and dug underneath, pulling out the camera. She juggled it in one hand.

"I took his fucking picture! I took that that fucking picture!" She was crying now, and pointing. "I didn't know he would die. I just...I was so angry. I'm not a bad person, Mels. I did it for you."

Mello looked at his sister. The flesh around his eyes had puffed in redness. Somehow that made the piercing blue pigment leap out Linda. It was mesmerizing. She couldn't look away at all. She suddenly wanted to pull Mello close and sing the lines of 'Sweet Child O Mine' to him. Because Mello's eyes were so much bluer than the sky, and it broke her heart to see such pain and sadness in them.

Mello touched his hands to the camera and the spell was broken.

"What are you doing?" she glanced at him, fear suddenly causing her heart to pound.

"Linda. I know you better than anyone else does or probably ever will, and you are not acting like yourself. I don't think the Linda I've grown up with is capable of doing something so horrible as what you did. This...thing, whatever it is, is evil. It needs to be destroyed before anyone else gets hurt. I'm going to break it before it hurts anyone else. Before it hurts you."

Linda blinked. The left side of Mello's lips curled up ever so slightly as he spoke. That was a tell. He was lying. She knew. She studied every one of Mello's many expressions and could tell them apart at just a slight glance.

He was lying.

Her grip intensified on it as he tried to pull it away.

"You won't take my picture!" She screamed, feeling instinctively like that was the only reason he could want it. "I won't let you have it!"

"Jesus, Lin!" Mello gritted through his teeth ans they struggled, toppling over on the bed, "Is this thing driving you mental? Can't you see what it's doing to you? It's making your paranoid."

They struggled on for a long minute or two until a bright flash and the sound of the camera shutter going off indicated that a picture indeed had been taken.

"Oh my God!" Linda felt beyond sick.

The lens had been facing Mello. Shocked and stunned, he was still holding it in his hands as the photo ejected and dropped to the bed. Neither of them dared to pick it up.

"Oh my God!" she repeated, not believing what had just happened.

Instead of waiting, instead of looking at him, Linda ran. She ran as fast as she could to the front door. The heavy sound of Mello's boots hitting the linoleum told her that he was following. She didn't care. She needed to get away. Surely now he was going to take her picture too. If not in revenge for Matt, surely for himself? She wasn't going to wait and find out. She had to get away.

Of-absofucking-course, her hands were too shaky to unlatch the front door. She wasted precious seconds getting it open and flung it as soon as the catch undid.

"Linda! Stop!" Mello's voice rang out behind her, "It wasn't your fault! Just stop!"

Stopping was the last thing on her mind. She nearly tripped over the door mat on her way out, but Mello was faster than her. He grabbed her by the arm right as she reached the edge of the porch steps. In a bid to escape she turned and punched him as hard as she could, stumbling backwards and away from his body.

It was as if the world moved in slow motion as she watched his back knock against the stair railing that lined the porch steps. He didn't stop the railing, he went over the edge, the force of her punch knocking him hard enough to go over. It wasn't a long way to fall. Three feet, maybe. He should have been unharmed. As Linda was learning, life was about to fuck her over the worst yet, and whenever something bad could possibly happen, it was going to, guaranteed. Mello slipped over the railing and fell to the ground, landing right on the upper pikes of a 1 ft fence that lined the edge of the azalea planter on either side of the porch steps. The height wasn't much to hurt anyone.

If they were only falling to the floor, that is.

Linda closed her eyes as he hit the fence. She couldn't block out the blood-curdling scream as the decorative upper lining—beautiful spade-shaped twists of metal that Mrs. Keehl had picked to line her flowers—pierced through Mello's face and abdomen.

Inside the house, on Linda's bed, was the photograph: an exact match to Mello's lifeless body, blood dripping out of his gouged eyes and through holes in his torso.

* * *

A/N: So, there's actually a second bonus ending to this story, involving Near and BB and Linda. Would anyone care for me to write it or do you like the story ending where it is?

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this story. It was a lot of fun to write.


End file.
